Road to Paradise
by FireBreath5150
Summary: For years, Nathan Grunder has been living in a world of strife with no end in sight. Sick of the way his life has turned out, he tries to end this cycle and create a better life for himself. Rated T for language.


**Disclaimer: To make this story as immersive as I can, all locations, restaurants, movies, and shows here will all be real. I own nothing except for this fanfic.**

Chapter 1

My name is Nathan Grunder and I live life one hour to the next. I don't know what happens as time ticks by nowadays, or really care about what I might miss out on. There's never anything noteworthy that happens anyways. Oh I might find a penny lying on the sidewalk, or my older brother ends up with a new girlfriend, but everything's usually just the same shit, different day. I wake up, have breakfast, and than endure 6 hours of misery at school. After that, I walk home only to get yelled at for being late all the time. At the end of the day I'd hole myself up in my room while my drunkard father get's wasted. And then the cycle begins again.

Things used to be much better back when I was 10. I lived in a decent house, had a couple great friends, and parents who actually gave a crap about my well being and than some. I remember every sunday I'd go out on a picnic with the rest of my family in Settler's Park. We'd always set up on the top of the same hill just to the left of the park's entrance and almost always brought the same food. Tyler would always tell a bunch of really bad jokes but we'd all laugh anyways. I don't think any one of us told my brother how awful his jokes really were.

Life was going smoothly until my mom got fired from her job. The income of my dad's career choice was too low to pay the bills and we soon faced bankruptcy. We all moved to a much cheaper place to avoid getting into too much debt, but my dad go laid off less than a week afterwards, once more putting my family in the red. We kept transferring to cheaper and cheaper houses until we ended up in the crappy place I ended up calling home for the next 6 years. My mom got depressed from living in "a piece of shit" and began taking drugs. After half a year, she was overwhelmed with everything going on and couldn't take anymore. She left home and never came back. A week later, her body was found in a ditch five miles from the city.

Words can't describe how I felt after hearing this. How any of us felt. My mother was the one person I could trust the most. The one person who I've always loved more than anybody else. And now she's dead? It didn't make sense to me. When she left, I prayed that she would come back home soon. I believed with all my heart that she would return to her husband and two sons with the same warm smile she always had. My dad took it worse than me. His wife meant everything to him. When she left, he became depressed and refused to speak with anyone. When news of her death reached his ears, he was a broken man.

My life improved a little when I discovered the joy of watching My Little Pony, Friendship Is Magic. The characters are always so supportive of each other and live in such a happy environment. The land of Equestria differs quite a bit from the world we all know and love and sometimes seeing such happiness is contagious. Other times I'm smothered in depression for their world is free of war, drugs, and the rest of humanity's idiocy while I'm stuck on this dying planet run by a corrupted race. Mandopony's got it right. We definitely are a long way from Equestria.

Ever since I've become a fan of that one show, I've been feeling... Different. Like I found the first piece to a puzzle I've never even known about, and now I'm compelled to find the rest of it. I still feel the same today, as I sit on the roof staring at the night sky. Confused as to what I should do next, and vaguely wondering if finding the rest of this 'puzzle' is even worth the effort. Just like every other night, this one ended with a strong feeling of serenity as I crawled back into my room for sleep. Just like every other night, this one ended in sweet blissful peace.


End file.
